I get that, but you can't tell me that they don't lose some customers with each price increase on their products. There is going to be some attrition as the prices continue to climb. We all know these prices aren't a result of lower edition sizes and better quality control, so the question is what is driving them? Have production costs really gone up that much? Have they not made up some of the difference by inflating their edition sizes and making variants of as many statues as they can?
My first guess is desired profits. Production costs have gone up, Igo's stated it on the other forum, the heads of XM have mentioned it as the reason they cut other corners that don't take away from their statues, like not using professional photography for their statues and using cheap hotels to cut travel costs to their factory visits. If all those other factors cost more, you need to make more to cover those costs and maintain the same profit margin, because nobody wants to make less money, so as a result the prices we're charged go up.
Also, it depends on what SS's strategy is. Maybe they have less customers buying higher priced items...to me it seems, and I don't really know, but it seems they have a longer term strategy. I say this because ES is still high. Maybe the plan is to sell higher to cover their own costs and not loose profit margins, but keep stock longer for longer term sales, which is why ES is high. They know they made 9,500 Batmans before they decided to do a variant, and with them not sold out they made 9,500 Wonder Women, too, knowing that Batman with the same ES has piles of sitting stock. But they're popular characters, there will always be somebody wants them. When I started collecting a lot of the main characters weren't in stock...there was no DC, no Spidey, no Cap, no Wolverine, no Hulk...if I didn't love comics characters and the minor guys I would've passed by SS's site, but look at them now. At any given point you can find an abundance of the most popular characters, some in several versions (Batman, Superman, Hulk, Cap, soon to be Spidey), while the minor characters are showing up less and less. This will keep newer collectors coming, many who will probably be one off buyers who just want their favorite, but that favorite will be around for a while in some version or another.
They know what they're doing. We might not always like it or agree, but they know what they're doing. Or at least think they do. If our consumer habits change, that will throw off their entire game plan (ie, low sales). But hopefully they'll be smart enough to adapt.
